…Tikkun olam is an idea that first surfaced in the second century A.D. It appears in the Talmud in reference to thorny problems, mostly of a legal nature, that have no apparent solution. If the sages somehow found a solution to those problems, it would be considered tikkun olam (the world repaired). If there is no practicable solution, on the other hand, there would be nothing to do but teiku, let it stand, and await the coming of the Messiah. Tikkun olam—in the phrase letaken olam b’malchut shaddai—also appears in the Aleinu prayer, which is part of every Jewish service. It refers to the hope that one day God will destroy false idols and the entire world will be perfected under His Kingdom. So tikkun olam does mean repairing the world, but not in the sense it is used today—as an obligation to go out and transform the world via radical politics. READ MORE